The occupation is on high alert before the flags march in Jerusalem, and the security establishment presents its last recommendations to the Bennett government

The Palestinians renewed their warnings to the Israeli occupation against allowing extremist Jewish groups to organize the so-called flag march through the Old City of Jerusalem next Sunday, while Israeli media spoke about the security establishment's latest recommendations regarding the march and its path.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement issued today, Thursday, that it warns against the continuation of "the mobilization mixed with hate speech and racism carried out by extremist Jewish groups to gather the largest possible number of Jewish extremists to participate in the march of occupation."

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry explained that it views the march of the flags and the military crowds as an official Israeli recognition that Jerusalem is occupied, and described the march as "an attempt to export the crises of this government to the Palestinian side at the expense of Palestinian rights."

For his part, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hussein Al-Sheikh, said - in a tweet on Twitter - that the march of the Israeli flags, the settlers' desecration of the Palestinian lands, and the continued killing, demolition, arrest and settlement, portend a new phase of confrontation with the occupation.

Earlier, the Palestinian presidency said in a statement that the Palestinians are able to protect Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, as they did in the issue of the Gates and the Deal of the Century.

The Palestinian presidency held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the escalation through the expected march of flags, warning that it would lead to an explosion of the situation.

For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) blamed the Israeli authorities for what it described as the high prices for racist and extremist behavior and for allowing the storming of Al-Aqsa and undermining its sanctity in the so-called march of flags.

Hamas said that the Israeli government's crossing of the red lines would explode the situation, and called on mediators and decision-makers in the region to put pressure on Israel to rein in it.

Hamas also confirmed that the resistance will not abandon its duty to protect the Palestinian people and their sanctities, and that it is ready to deal with all scenarios.

settlers' path

This comes at a time when the Israeli police raised the state of alert in its ranks, and called in reserve forces to secure the flags march, as a spokesman for the occupation police published a map of the path of this march, showing its passage through Bab al-Amud in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.

And the commander of the occupation police, Kobi Shabtai, ordered the deployment of more than 3,000 of his men in occupied East Jerusalem, and hundreds of others inside what are described as mixed cities, while the Israeli army deployed the Iron Dome system near the border with the Gaza Strip in anticipation of a reaction from the resistance against the background of the flags march, according to What the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Yediot Aharonot quoted the Israeli police chief in the Jerusalem Department, Doron Targman, as saying that starting today, Thursday, the police will deploy its personnel, whether in uniform or civilian, as well as border guards throughout the Old City, the Temple Mount and other tense points in Jerusalem.

According to the newspaper, the Israeli security establishment, in its recent recommendations, warned the political leadership against changing the path of the flags march at the last minute, which so far indicates a security trend to respond to the wishes of extremist Jewish groups for the march to pass from Bab al-Amud and through the Islamic Quarter in the Old City to the Wall Buraq.

Today, Thursday, the occupation police stated in a tweet on Twitter that they will not allow the march to storm the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, denying what it described as false news circulating on social media platforms.

The parade's route will begin from the center of Jerusalem and continue throughout the Old City, ending at the Western Wall (Contrary to false reports circulating on social media, the parade will not enter the Temple Mount) pic.twitter.com/TPLp2BcNWc

— Israel Police (@israelpolice) May 26, 2022

This march, which extremist groups also call the "flags dance", is organized in what is known as "Quds Day", in which Israel commemorates its occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967, in order to complete its occupation of the city and control of its holy sites.

The march was organized for the first time in 1968 by Rabbi Yehuda Hazani, and turned into an annual tradition.

The occupation forces force the Palestinians to close their shops in conjunction with the passage of the march from the Old City, in which the participants provocatively attack Palestinian homes and shops, chant slogans "Death to Arabs" and dance carrying Israeli flags.

Last year, under the threat of the Palestinian resistance, the Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to prevent the march from passing through Bab al-Amud and diverted it to Bab al-Khalil so that it would take a shorter route that avoids the Muslim Quarter.

But the Palestinian resistance fired a batch of rockets towards Jerusalem, which forced the Israeli security services to immediately disperse the march, and the battle of the “Sword of Jerusalem” erupted according to the Palestinian name, or what Israel calls “the guard of the walls.”

Following the end of the war on Gaza, the media march was reorganized on June 15 according to its traditional path, which was described as the first important decision of the new government headed by Naftali Bennett, as the march passed through Bab al-Amud amid great tension.

This year, the occupation decided to organize the march on its traditional path, with the settlers divided into about 8,000 entering the Old City from Bab al-Amud, and a similar number from Bab al-Khalil to the Al-Buraq Wall.

But on the other hand, an Israeli appeals court on Wednesday overturned a ruling by a district court judge allowing Jewish extremists to perform Talmudic rituals at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, following strongly worded Palestinian warnings.

Judge Ainat Avman Mueller said in her ruling that the right to freedom of Jewish worship there (Al-Aqsa Mosque) "is not absolute and must be replaced by other interests, including the preservation of public order."